1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of disc cleaning machines, and more specifically, to a machine adapted for removing undesirable material from a magnetic disc surface without the need to remove the disc from its associated cartridge.
2. Prior Art
The need for regular disc maintenance is widely recognized by data processing users. One particular reason for such need relates to the fact that the information stored on a typical magnetic disc is often times much more valuable than the disc itself. For example, the loss of a single bit of information can lead to a lengthy and expensive data reconstruction process. Accordingly, in order to insure that no information is lost from the disc, users of such discs have taken various measures such as air filtration systems, sealed disc cartridge assemblies and the like in an attempt to prevent contamination from accumulating on the magnetic disc surfaces. Even with such measures, it has been found that there is still a need to clean the disc as small particles of undesirable materials find their way to the surface of the disc.
With this as a background, cleaning of the disc must be done in such a manner that no possible damage occurs to the disc and thus to the information disposed thereon. Prior art cleaning methods have been somewhat at odds with maintaining the information on the disc. For example, if too much force is applied to the disc, it could be scratched. If a liquid is used, the disc may have to be removed from the cartridge thus increasing the likelihood of damage to the disc. Of course, on the other hand, unless the disc is properly cleaned, dust, dirt and other undesirable material can build up on the disc which may prevent such disc from functioning properly, and may in fact lead ultimately to the destruction of the information on the disc.
While the need to maintain magnetic discs is recognized throughout the industry, another major drawback has been the lack of a machine that is truly cost effective. In the past, such machines were extremely complex, and even those machines that were effective in the removal of undesirable material such as dust, cigarette smoke, microscopic oil particles, oxide redeposits, paper bits and the like, such machines were so expensive that they were only used in specific situations.
It is also recognized in the art that after using the disc approximately 20 times, the disc should be cleaned in order to remove the build up of undesirable material. The present invention enables the disc to be repeatedly cleaned without damage to the magnetic disc. This is especially important in view of the new advances associated with use of magnetic discs. In the newer machines, the disc travels at an extremely high rate of speed, 2400-2600 RPMs. The head moves at a distance of approximately 50 micro-inches from the surface of the disc. Under these conditions, a particle of cigarette smoke which ranges in size of up to 200 micro-inches can cause a crash as the head moves over the disc. Thus, there is a need for a machine which is capable of removing such extremely fine particles.
Another problem associated with the failure of prior art machines to properly clean the magnetic disc is the fact that a user may often run long periods of time without experiencing a failure due to a contaminated disc. As the disc begins to deteriorate, it experiences "track reassignments"; a hardware and software method of bypassing bad spots. The user whose disc has run out of alternate recording tracks, or where debris build-up actually causes a head crash, risks the possibility of destroying the disc and thus forever losing the information disposed thereon. The present invention overcomes this problem by providing a machine which substantially cleans the disc and prevents the above-identified deterioration problems.
The present invention is directed to overcoming the problems associated with the prior art magnetic disc cleaning machines, and provides a magnetic disc cleaner which is cost effective and which is further capable of removal of even microscopic particles from the disc. The present invention also performs such cleaning in a manner so as to prevent any possible damage to the disc and thus preserves the information disposed thereon. Finally, the present invention, because of its specific configuration, is adapted to clean the magnetic disc without removal of the disc from the disc cartridge.